Brew Moon is expanding to Local Motion's Waikiki lanai

BREW MOON is expanding to Waikiki and it will not be hampered by the building permit delays that confound so many businesses.

Brew Moon is leasing the Local Motion lanai made famous around the world on the MTV series "Real World Hawaii" in 1998. The surfing lifestyle retailer was founded in Hawaii in 1977, and its flagship Waikiki store opened the same year the MTV hit series shot its Hawaii episodes.

"It will be designed to basically feature our beer that we brew at the Ward Centre," said owner Marcus Bender.

Both companies believe the arrangement will be mutually beneficial, that Local Motion's customers will be drawn to Brew Moon and that Brew Moon customers will be drawn into the Local Motion store.

It will have a full bar license and a limited Moon menu.

"It's a cool relationship to be working together with Local Motion," he said.

Local Motion has done its own food-service operation on the 75-seat, indoor-outdoor lanai and "determined that's not the business we know," said Marketing Director Mitch McEwen.

Other operators have also run the Surfers' Cafe "and even though they did a good job, it was just a little tough for them."

Local Motion had been looking for the right partner for a while in an effort to "make the whole retail experience more complete (and) by being kind of an after-surf hangout -- a great place to get food and enjoy handcrafted beers and that kind of thing," McEwen said.

The businesses are planning dual promotions for when the Moon moves in for a soft opening sometime next month.

Staffing is still being worked out, so Bender was unsure whether additional hires would be made.

Signage is also being prepared.

The 3 to 11 p.m. food and beverage service may expand to earlier hours after about a 90-day "experiment with different times," Bender said.

It is completely possible that someone in Waikiki might want a beer around 11 a.m.

"I've heard of that," Bender chuckled.

KORL to change format

Radio station KORL-AM 690 is changing its business model and format in January, and 18- to 49-year-old Filipinos and Latin music lovers will benefit.

The station will shift to more station-originated programming, a change in its initial business model, which was to sell blocks of time to individuals who would put on their own multicultural shows and sell commercials.

Now it plans to expand its Filipino and Latin music programming, according to Program Director John Miro.

The lion's share of the current broadcast day is in Japanese and is heavily sponsored by Sony, Miro said.

Come next month, the 12-hour block of weekday Japanese programming will be broken up into two chunks, from 6 to 10 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m.

Filipino programming, aimed at 18- to 49-year-olds with the latest contemporary music from the Philippines including songs by Hawaii's Jasmine Trias, will air from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

"We want to seize the whole opportunity for that market," Miro said.

"For the majority of Filipino youth, I think they'll dig it as soon as they discover it."

KNDI-AM 1270, which is also multicultural but primarily known for its Filipino programming, reaches an older demographic, he said.

Latin music, with emphasis on reggaeton, now airs on KORL during "Latino Tropical" from 6 to 10 p.m. without a live host. It will expand to include Saturday nights, which will put it head-to-head against the 13-year-old "Sabor Tropical" on Hawaii Public Radio's KIPO-FM 89.3, hosted by veteran host and club DJ Ray Cruz from 5 to 8 p.m.

KORL is looking to hire personalities, which Miro has found challenging in a tight job market. Training in radio basics will be provided, but being bilingual is important, he said.

Other time-brokered programming, such as the Ray Dackerman show and the Chinese (Mandarin) language show, will continue on the station, Miro said.